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How Social Media Hacks Your Mind: Disinformation, Conspiracy & Control
How do social media, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and algorithmic manipulation hack our minds? In this episode of Cults, Culture, & Coercion, Dr. Steven Hassan interviews Friedrich aka Fritz Moser about his documentary How to Build a Truth Engine and what it can teach us about neuroscience, psychological warfare, QAnon and other conspiracy theories, and mind control.
Friedrich Moser is the producer and director of How to Build a Truth Engine, a documentary that unpacks why people are vulnerable to disinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories and what we can do to fight back. Moser has been producing award-winning documentaries since 1999 and is a co-founder of Open Circle Lab, a technology-literacy initiative hosting workshops on media, social media, AI, and quantum technology.
In this conversation, Dr. Hassan and Friedrich Moser examine:
- Why people are psychologically vulnerable to disinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories
- How neuroscience can help explain the way information shapes our model of reality
- How social media algorithms exploit attention and reinforce increasingly narrow information feeds
- Why online echo chambers can create powerful reinforcement loops and contribute to “self-brainwashing”
- How conspiracy theories and cult dynamics can overlap
- What Storyminer revealed about detecting conspiracy narratives and patterns online
- How investigative journalism, technology, and neuroscience come together in How to Build a Truth Engine
- How QAnon functioned as a community, game, and narrative-building system
- Why loneliness, isolation, and social connection can play a role in radicalization
- How gaming and collaborative online communities can lower people's defenses and create relationships with unknown actors
- How cybersecurity researchers can identify coordinated influence operations through patterns, metadata, and amplification networks
- The relationship between psychological warfare, propaganda, authoritarianism, and information manipulation
- Why media literacy, social media literacy, and understanding how the brain works are essential forms of psychoeducation
The conversation also explores QAnon, online radicalization, Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, political influence, and the challenge of distinguishing real information from coordinated manipulation in an increasingly digital world.
Moser explains why the “truth engine” is not simply one piece of technology that can solve misinformation. Instead, he argues that technology, quality journalism, education, and an increase of awareness about our own vulnerability all have important roles to play.
Dr. Hassan and Moser also discuss Moser’s upcoming documentary Day X, which examines Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, the NRx movement, the Dark Enlightenment, transhumanism, and the historical development of ideas connecting science fiction, technology, and political ideology.
🎬 Watch How to Build a Truth Engine at http://TruthEngine.net
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#Disinformation #MindControl #ConspiracyTheories #PsychologicalWarfare #Neuroscience #QAnon #CultPsychology #Propaganda #SocialMedia #AlgorithmicManipulation #MediaLiteracy #StevenHassan #FriedrichMoser #TruthEngine #HowToBuildATruthEngine
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